Signal acquisition devices such as digital storage oscilloscopes (DSOs) use a display grid that is fixed at eight divisions vertically by ten divisions horizontally similar to the grid pattern initially etched into the glass of the cathode ray tubes (CRT) of earlier analog oscilloscopes. The eight by ten division grid has lingered despite the fact that most engineering applications requiring the graphing of data are not limited to an eight by ten graticule. That is, in virtually all disciplines of science, data is typically graphed with scales that provide an appearance adapted for ease of interpreting the data. One disadvantage of the current standard oscilloscopes is their limitations to display the increasingly longer data records that are captured in modern scientific experimentation. For example, two typical settings for oscilloscopes are for the display of only a portion of a particular waveform.
Improvements in oscilloscope technology have resulted in the display of longer records (on the order of millions and tens of millions of points); however, this creates an extremely long data record that is difficult to analyze. Particularly, when looking for specific patterns or anomalies in waveforms displayed on the oscilloscope, an operator must visually review part of the waveform for points of interest, trends or other such anomalies and then attempt to review the entire long data record to identify such similar events (points of interest) in the record. For example, it may be desirable to record a signal on a track of a disc drive as it passes a given mark or location. Such a data capturing event creates a long record that may have waveform shapes that are more complex (curved) than patterns that are typically displayed (i.e., square or sine wave, sawtooth or exponential delay patterns). Accordingly, it is desired to have a method of identifying similar events in long data records.